Avengers/X-Men One Shots - The Blood/White Phoenix Saga

ONE-SHOT LXXXIII: Fourth of July at the Bartons'

Set shortly after White Phoenix 10: An Avengers Endgame Fanfiction

James Buchanan Barnes

The American flag reminded me so much of Steve. That made me miss him. Right now, the symbol of patriotism sat right in front of the Bartons' house, where we were supposed to be spending the Fourth of July. I remembered the Fourth was also Steve's birthday. We pulled up in front of the house, towing our large campervan where we'd happened to spend the past two days cooped up in as a family of five. Our three kids, Emily, Wolfgang and Shannon all jumped out of the vehicle and ran up to greet Clint, Laura and their three kids, Lila, Cooper and Nathaniel. Taking Adelaide's hand, we walked up to their front porch.

'Nice camper,' Laura commented.

'Ah, it's nothing,' Adelaide replied. 'It's small, but it got us here. Not without any shortage of 'are we there yets?' from the kids.'

'Well, come inside. I fixed lemonade and cookies, if you'd like.'

'Oh, that's great, Laura. Thank you,' I said, as courteously as I could manage. All six of the kids ran up the steps and hurried inside. Clint touched Adelaide's arm.

'You two okay?'

'Yeah. We're fine. I just have to talk to him,' she said, patting his arm gently and giving him a side-on hug. 'You go inside. We'll be there in a minute.' The archer smiled and moved his way into the house. She looked at me. 'Hey, look at me.' I looked down at her, meeting her blue eyes with my equally blue ones. 'You look sad. It's Steve again, isn't it? You miss him.'

'I forgot you could read my mind.'

'I didn't need to. You weren't focussed on driving and trying to keep our tribe alive like you normally are.' She tucked a piece of my long hair behind my ear, stroking my bearded cheek, her brows furrowed, almost as if in thought. Standing on tiptoe, she pressed a kiss to my lips, tender and sweet - like her.

'That obvious, huh?'

'Mm-hm. It's written all over your face. Anger, sorrow, pain. Besides, I made a promise to never read your mind. It's not like telepathy could help with this anyway.'

'It could if you could take the pain away.'

'I could try - but then you'd never know pain. Pain's a part of the human experience. It's what makes a human a human.'

'But I miss him. It's just - I was on the run for so many years, with you, and you went back after they rescued you, but I stayed on the run, and then you kept coming back and going again, and then Stark, and the Accords, and Vienna, and I was just... I was lost. Then I see Steve again, in Wakanda, then it all went to shit. Then five years later, I see him again, but it's only for a couple days. We have the funeral, meet your parents, have the wedding, go to Disneyland, and then... just like that, he's gone. I didn't get the closure with him that I wanted. The time that I wanted to have with him, to start to become friends again. To have what we had before we lost it all.'

'You guys were never the same after HYDRA and the ice and the Avengers and all of that. Stop blaming the circumstances on things you can't control. What happened to you two could have ended so much differently. Circumstances are sometimes determined by actions, but we are not judge, jury and executioner for what happens to us and our futures. Okay. Whatever god there is out there, be it Fate, Providence, or if there is a God, he's the real deal. He's the one that judges our fates and futures. I don't believe in all that stuff, but what I do know is that we are not in control.' I looked down at my wife and stroked her cheek gently, holding her hand in mine. Softly, we both kissed, tenderly. She met my eyes after we broke apart.

'Shall we go inside, enjoy this day?'

'That's the spirit,' she said. 'Come on.' She took my hand and led me inside the house.

Shannon squealed as I chased her around the fall leaves. Picking her up, I threw her over my shoulder, making her giggle. She wriggled out of my arms and ran towards the nearest tree, starting to climb it. Wolfgang barrelled into me out of nowhere, sending me tumbling down to the ground.

'You're a great dad, Bucky,' Clint said, offering me a hand. I took it and he pulled me up. 'No wonder the kids love you.'

'Daddy, I can't get down!!' Shannon screeched in her ear-piercing, high-pitched five-year-old voice. I came over to the tree and saw her perched on the branches, looking down at me with a look of near panic in her eyes. 'But look how high I got!'

'You got really high, Shannon. Good girl. Just jump, sweetie. Daddy's got you.' She jumped and I caught her, swinging her down to the ground. 'Give it a couple years, babydoll, and you'll be climbing as high as your brother.' She giggled and started to run off after Nathaniel.

'How are you and the wife?' Clint asked, gesturing to the house, where Laura and Adelaide were doing dishes, left over from the cookies and lemonade, as well as making dinner.

'We're good. Married life isn't easy to adjust to, but we're getting there.'

'She talked a lot about you. During the five years you were gone, I mean.'

'She did?'

'It was easy to see how much she loved you,' he remarked.

'I heard something about the two of you teaming up or something.'

'Yeah, when I was - well, Ronin. She'd taken up the Blood Phoenix again, started wearing her old red suit. She was so grief-filled, and she could have gone to some really bad people, but she came to me. Not that what I gave her was help. All I told her to do was start using that sword of hers, if she wanted to get revenge for what happened, with the whole Thanos thing. So she and I teamed up, and for about one, maybe two years, we killed relentlessly. I finally got a firsthand glimpse into what she was like when the two of you were working together. It was almost as if she'd relapsed, or something like that, when we killed. No emotion, just angry.' I frowned.

'It's a little hard to imagine her like that, now that the trigger words are out and we don't do that anymore.'

'Yeah, she's pretty happy now.' Just then Adelaide came out on the porch, wiping her hands on a towel.

'Kids!! James! Clint!' she shouted. 'Dinnertime!' They all ran towards the house, and Clint was about to go, when I stopped him.

'Clint - thank you.'

'For what?'

'Looking after her when I couldn't.'

'Yeah, sure, Bucky. You're welcome.'

That night, we sat outside and watched the fireworks display that Clint and his son Cooper had set off for the Fourth. I looked to my left, and Adelaide was leaning on my shoulder, her metal hand intertwining with mine. She looked so peaceful - serene, even, as she watched the fireworks go off. Every so often, one of us would be mildly startled by the noises, and we'd clutch tighter onto the other's hand. One such firework went off, and she squeezed my hand. I squeezed back, gently, but she snuggled up against my chest. I pulled the blanket off of my shoulders and put it around hers. She sighed, then sat up slightly and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

'Happy Fourth,' she whispered.

'Happy Fourth to you too, doll,' I replied, kissing her on the lips, which took her mildly by surprise, but she soon met my lips, melting into the kiss.